public showers

[rahjama]

Got into a debate recently with a friend over the showers at our local gym. We go to the gym together a lot of the time and both always shower after.

Given the prices of everything going up, the cost of living being more expensive, and the fact that the gym membership itself isn't cheap, every time I go I take full advantage of the 'free' hot shower. I always take shampoo, conditioner, body wash, a razor, face scrub/wash and generally everything I use in a shower as if I were at home.

I do not wash my hair every day at home, I save that for when I use the gym showers roughly 3x a week. And yes I shower daily but only wash my body , in my shower at home for 5 minutes max. And yes DH and DC all shower normally at home, I just thought saving water where we can is smart.

Friend saw my razor and was mortified that I shave in the public showers. I don't personally think it's dirty and I don't mind the thought of someone else also shaving in them. I'm only talking legs and armpits, no pubic hair as I get a wax, maybe that's tmi, but I think if I didn't get a wax then maybe I would do my pubic hairs as well??

Friend just made me feel really dirty and unhygienic and I wanted others opinions on it?? I didn't realise it was so disgusting

All that sort of thing was quite the norm in my council run steam baths. Women would be shaving, using a pumice stone, colouring their hair. The works. No one batted an eye. Go for it OP. Assuming you leave it clean afterwards.

LOL

I’ve noticed people carrying shaving paraphernalia before and it has never bothered me. Not sure what the issue with it is hair not bodily fluids

People piss in swimming pools and discharge must come out in pools and showers. Hair malts all the time hence why their are always pubes in toilets and showers etc. Plus men's hairy bodies malting.

People sweat grossly in gyms and probably exhale alot of sweat.

Anything can be gross when you think about it?

Shaving in gym showers (or any publish showers) is gross.

This.
You are naked and scrubbing your body down. Head hairs and pubes included. Teeny tiny shaven hairs are the least of your worries if you are precious about stuff like this.

Doesn't it block the drains? Our shower filter thingy traps the longer head hair but I think fine short hairs would form some sort of sludge in the bottom. I know that I have to shove sink unblocker down the bath plughole more often now that DD uses Veet before a shower.

It's a bit like doing personal care on public transport, its grim to pluck your eyebrows (or anything else) on a train... Even if people disagree about hygiene re shaving at gym showers, it comes down to consideration for other people using the same facilities.

Why is it grim to pluck eyebrows on the train? Or apply make up? That seems to be a MN thing... it is terrible to apply make-up in public. Why?

The make up thing doesn't bother me personally.

Plucking hairs: because no one wants to sit somewhere where you've plucked. OK public transport may not be the cleanest, but don't make it worse for people.

It's not just a MN thing (never seen it mentioned here), it having manners and consideration towards others thing 🤷‍♂️

No, they don't at all. For the duration of your camping stay ,that is your home.
OP has a home. She can shower in the gym, but shave at home either in the sink or by having the occasional shower at home rather than at the gym.

(Although you should realise that nothing awful will happen if you don't shave for 3 weeks. Why all the exclamantion marks?)

It's definitely unusual but I'd find it less disgusting than loose strands of long hair, which is inevitable if people wash their hair. Eugh

I used to shave my legs when I had a gym membership. There were loads of shower cubicles and very rarely a queue and I always left it clean. I can't see a problem.

Im on the fence. I use gym showers a lot and I suppose if I don't know you're shaving in there, that's ok. But if you're not cleaning the shower so I do, then that's a problem

The sauna at my gym has a sign asking people to refrain from shaving. Which raises the disturbing idea that someone must have once shaved (or at least they thought someone might shave) in the public sauna. Sitting there on the little wooden bench shaving your legs. So odd.

I’m often easily grossed out but I really can’t get overly worried about someone shaving in a gym shower cubicle. I do hate you see obvious long hairs in the shower but find it difficult to imagine being able to tell if someone had shaved in the shower. Also I can’t imagine getting overly worried about shaved pubes when I can just as easily come across pubes which have naturally shed during washing or even worse faecal matter from arse washing etc

I don’t think it’s gross but I don’t like it. It’s a me thing rather than them but I find it’s weirdly intimate. It feels like watching someone do a personal thing but they’re doing it on the 8.45 to Manchester. But as long as they don’t leave makeup mess around it’s not actually dirty. Just uncomfortable - a bit like someone who takes their shoes off so their bare feet are next to me. I just don’t like it.

HIV from what? People are showering alone. Where is the HIV risk?

---

I was being sarcastic

Someone upthread said this

It seems a few people have picked up on my post. I do not think there is a hiv risk. I was taking the piss.

Someone else said some bullshit about shaving and cutting and blood being the reason for no shaving being a rule

Utter bollocks.

Infection will be a valid concern for many places tbh. Not necessarily hiv.

It will certainly be a key reason for not shaving in a sauna (as a poster has mentioned) - warm, wet conditions are primed for breeding bacteria.

Plus, cuts do happen when shaving - no one wants to encounter spots or splashes of blood in gym showers and not everyone will be as diligent as the op as cleaning up after themselves.

It's really not rocket science.

No spots or splashes of blood surely means that any one on their period should just stay at home too, yes?

Oh my. I'm now hearing "Cancel the gym" (shave at home) as the new 'cancel the cheque'! I'm on the fence with this one. Not terrible, pubic hair would be worse. A woman at my gym used to get a vicious looking chiropodist knife and shave the skin on her feet. Now that was grim. Please don't do this at your gym folks. And if you recognise yourself from a very basic badly run privately owned gym in the midlands, yes, I did judge you!

Gross 🤮

I’d consider it gross. Our gym you can’t swill the shower cubicle out afterwards so you’d leave hair about. Plus there are gaps at the bottom between cubicles and soapy water bobs along the floor from one cubicle to another. I find it grim having someone else’s soap suds swilling over my feet, never mind the thought hair could be mixed in.

You lot are worrying about a bit of hairs that is harmless overlooking the fact that you can catch all sorts of infections from the gym like ringworms, athletes foot, warts (veruca) etc
www.health.com/condition/skin-conditions/infections-germs-caught-at-gym